"John Norman - Gor 16 - Guardsman of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

"What is going on out there?" called the voice again, as we slipped away.
"Be off! Be off!" cried a voice, frightened, in the darkness.
"Back oars," I said. Then I said, "Steady."
The longboat rested on the waters, rocking in the darkness, silent.
"We know you are out there!" cried a fellow in the darkness, near the chain. "We are armed!
Approach at your own riskl Identify yourselvesl"
I smiled, discerning his fear. I gave no orders.
"Identify yourselves!" called the voice.
We were silent.
I saw no point in attacking. The element of surprise was no longer with us. We had taken
three longboats in the night. That there was danger at the chain was now well understood by the
pirates. They had thought to work with impunity, and had found that we had not chosen to permit it.
We were silent.
"Return to the ship," said the voice in the darkness. "Return to the shipl"
We let the longboat move past us, some yards to starboard, judging by the sound of the oars.
I then had the longboat move to the chain, where I felt the links. In one of the great links I
could feel a concave roughness which then gave way, as the tool had bit in, to a sharp, geometrically
precise crevice, too small to feel inside. I felt about the link, to the limits, on both sides of the link, of
the crevice. It was diagonal, and, at its deepest point, toward the link's center, about an inch in depth.
"What is it?" asked one of the men with me, an oarsman, behind me and to the right.
"They must have been working here about a quarter of an Ahn," I said.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
"The chain has been weakened," I said.
"What shall we do?" he asked.
"We shall continue to patrol the chain," I said.
"Did you hear it?" asked one of the men with me.
"Yes," I said.
"A fish?" asked one of the men.
"Divers, I think," I said
"What are you doing?" asked one of the men.
"Return for me in five Ehn,,, I said.
I put aside my weapon, in its sheath, in the bottom of the longboat. I removed my sandals and
tunic.
"Give me a knife," I said.
"Here," said one of my fellows. I put the blade between my teeth and, silently, lowered
myself over the side of the longboat. I treaded water. The longboat, almost noiselessly, the oars
muffled, the wood wrapped with thonged fur at the fulcrum points, the oarlocks similarly served,
moved away.
It was cold and dark in the waters of the Vosk.
After a few Ehn the longboat returned, and I was hauled aboard.
"Here is your knife," I told the fellow who had loaned me the weapon.
"Was it a fish?" asked a man.
"No," I said.
"The knife is sticky," said the man to whom I had returned it.
I spit into the Vosk. "Rinse it," I said.
"How many were there?" asked a man.
"Two," I said. "They were not patient. They returned to work too soon."
"What shall we do?" asked one of the men.
"Return to the Una," I said "We shall need our sleep. There will be war tomorrow."
"Was the chain damaged?" asked a man.